Girls soccer: Centennial only needs one goal to beat Mt. Hebron

Steve Baxter says his team needs to be more aggressive and learn to finish the ball better.

"We should have scored 15 goals so far" this season, said the Centennial soccer coach.

But one is all it takes to win some games, and Baxter's Eagles got that goal to beat visiting Mt. Hebron, 1-0, Tuesday.

"We were moving the ball well," said Baxter, "but we lacked the fierceness we need. We aren't going to beat River Hill, Glenelg or Marriotts Ridge if we're not flying to the ball. We've got to learn to put teams away."

The win is the Eagles' fifth straight, and their third in the county. River Hill and Glenelg also posted their third county wins on Tuesday, putting the trio in a logjam at the top of the league standings.

Howard, which had won its first two county games, got upset by Oakland Mills, 2-1, with Rachel Hunter getting the winning goal. Mary Grace Grandfield also scored, on a corner kick, for Oakland Mills, which notched its first county win.

Freshman Anna Mitchell scored the game-winner for Centennial, her fifth goal of the season. With four and a half minutes left until halftime, Ruthie Lucas centered the ball and Mitchell fought off a couple Mt. Hebron defenders, turned and lofted the ball over leaping Mt. Hebron keeper Tahlia Tavai.

Centennial dominated the game, taking advantage of the Vikings' "off day," said Mt. Hebron's Nia Crump. "We needed to come out faster on our toes and communicate more."

"We left a lot on the field," said Mt. Hebron coach Tim Deppen. "Our effort was fantastic."

But, he added, the Vikings weren't connecting passes.

"Maybe 15 per cent of our passes went to our team," he said. "We played a lot of careless balls away to Centennial. We played a lot of what could have been great balls to our forwards in behind their defense right to their defense. Connecting passes is where we need to improve urgently."

Centennial came out flat, said senior Nicki Mize. "In general, we were not as strong as we were against Reservoir (in a 1-0 win last week). It was an off day."

Still, she added, "we take one game at a time. We're not overlooking anyone. Every game we play is the world championship to us."

"We have to be aggressive to the ball," said Baxter. "We can't let teams be the first to the ball and I think that is what we were doing in the first half."

Mt. Hebron had a dangerous shot with just seconds left in a game when Emma Vo served the ball to Kelly Richards just about 10 yards out. But Katie Donegan easily handled the shot.

Mt. Hebron's offense was handcuffed by Centennial's defense, led by Jordan Coburn, and only got off four attempts. Donegan had three saves. Centennial has not given up a goal in running play, and has allowed goal on a corner kick this season. "Our defense is playing great," Baxter said.

Tavai had six saves for Mt. Hebron. One came 23 minutes into the game when Mize passed to Rachel Hein in the right corner, who centered the ball to Lucas. Lucas, the ball and Tavai all arrived at the same time, and Tavai held on for the save.

Hein had a point blank shot midway through the second half that ricocheted off a defender, and Lucas got the rebound shot. But gutsy Tavai and her defense held.

The Eagles lost a key player in the second half when Caroline Baker went down. Baxter said he was concerned about her injury. The right back was "just amazing for us. She attacks better than anyone else in the county out of the back."

Mt. Hebron's loss was its second this week. Yesterday, the Vikings lost to Fallston, 1-0. "We always play the good teams really well," said Deppen.

Oakland Mills on win streak

After beating Northeast (Arundel County), 2-0, for its first win of the season, Oakland Mills upset unbeaten Howard in league play, 2-1.

Mary Grace Grandfield scored off a corner kick in the first half but Howard tied the game in the second half. Rachel Hunter scored the game winner. Gaby Vincent had some key stops in the second half to lead the Scorpions' defense, said coach Christina Bleivik.

"Our team has been working hard and lost some close games," said Bleivik. "They were determined to get this home game. They really feed off of each other and were pumped at halftime."

Keeper Erin Yarn had "some great saves" in the last 15 minutes to secure the win, and Jessica Lampron and Marlee Slaughter also played well, said Bleivik.

Nicole Twardowicz and Devin Adson each scored in the win over Northeast, with Grandfield and Courtney Rapp, who assisted the first goal, also turning in strong performances.

Raiders, Mustangs tie

Atholton and Marriotts Ridge played through two overtime periods and ended with a 1-1 tie. Sarah Benecky scored for Atholton and Morgan Crable scored for Marriotts Ridge. Both goals came in the second half and were unassisted.

Jenna Bergquist had five saves for Marriotts Ridge and Amy Weinberg had seven for Atholton.

Crable scored at the 37-minute mark for the Mustangs.

"Shortly after, our defense made the mistake of assuming Benecky was offsides. We had been successful with the offsides trap much of the night (12 total calls against Atholton), but got burned when we did not get the call. Benecky took our keeper Jenna Bergquist one-on-one" and scored, said Marriotts Ridge coach Robin Grey.

"Overall though, it was a great game. Both teams fought hard," Grey added. "I thought we had the advantage early on, but then Atholton came back, particularly in the second half. Each of us had our opportunities, but couldn't seem to capitalize on them.

"Given that we played Century less than 24 hours the prior to this game, I was proud of the way my girls fought all the way to the end tonight," added Grey, whose team lost, 3-1, to Century.

Hawks unbeaten in league

River Hill jumped to a 3-0 halftime lead and went on to beat host Wilde Lake, 4-0, to notch its third county win.

"We played very poorly and were outclassed by River Hill who thoroughly deserved the win," said Wilde Lake coach Robin Sawyer.

Sheridan Street scored a hat trick in the win. Haily Emrick and Alexandria Hamer had assists on two of Street's goals. Madison Haugh also scored, assisted by Street.

River Hill hosts Glenelg, also unbeaten in the league, on Thursday.

Long Reach holds of Bears

Kristen Fawole had a hat trick to lead Long Reach in a 4-2 win over Hammond. Heather Glasser also scored in the win and assisted all three of Fawole's goals.

Allie Kennedy and Molly Albano scored for Hammond. Keeper Julia Reed saved a Long Reach penalty kick and had 14 saves overall.

Glenelg edges Reservoir

Glenelg wasted no time in scoring as it posted its third county win by beating Reservoir, 2-1.

The Gladiators scored in the first two minutes on a throw-in from Danielle Burris to Amanda Lyons. They added a second-half goal when Kathleen Mensing sent a through-ball to Burris, who finished what was eventually the winning goal.

"At that point Reservoir really stepped up a notch and made the last 30 minutes what is should be: (Class) 3A champs vs. 2A finalists," said Glenelg coach Dean Sheridan. "They did a nice job of pressure and winning balls in the central midfield, and Glenelg was a little weak in maintaining control in the attacking midfield."

Backs Casey Vantucci, Megan Pawtowski and Taylor Zucco held their ground, added Sheridan. Pawtowski "did as good a job as you can do on Amanda Jackson in the second half," he said.

Reservoir scored off a dead ball. "Amy Armstrong played a great ball into the mix and Colleen Axenfeld put a head on it," said coach Josh Sullivan. "We had several good chances and simply couldn't put another one away."

Brooke Carey had six saves for Glenelg and Megan Fowler had seven for Reservoir.

Glenelg "dominated us (in the first half), outshooting us 7-1," said Sullivan. On her winning goal Burris "hit a perfect ball from about the 25 and played it right over Megan's head into the side netting."

Reservoir "did a much better job attacking" and outshot Glenelg, 7-5, in the second half, said Sullivan.

Two win in IAAM play

Both Glenelg Country School and Chapelgate Christian Academy posted wins today.

Glenelg Country overwhelmed Beth Tfiloh, 7-0. Catelyn Gamble had three goals and an assist in the win, Deja Hursey had two and Tala Ahmadi and Sabrina DeLeonibus had one goal apiece.

Gamble is a freshman and these were her first goals of the season. Two of her goals came from beyond the 18, and she also scored on a long shot on a free kick.

Hursey and DeLeonibus are also freshmen. The first-year varsity players had a combined six goals.

Gamble also had an assist, and Ashley Mink and Megan Steeley also had assists.

Beth Tfiloh did not have any shots on goal and Glenelg Country evened its IAAM C Conference record to 1-1. The Dragons are also 1-1 overall.

Chapelgate took a chance and came from behind to beat, FCA, 5-4, behind a four-goal performance by sophomore Lydia Frierson.

Chapelgate took an early lead on a shot by Molly Carlson and assisted by Jordan Williams. But FCA scored the next three goals in the first half.

"Chapelgate came out the second half more intense and with their heads in the game, but we got scored on again, making the game, 4-1," said coach Christen Gjeldum. "Then I decided to take a risk and put three forwards up top to play a 4-3-3."

The gamble paid off as Frierson scored back-to-back goals to make it a 4-3 game with about 10 minutes left.

Frierson also added a penalty kick to tie the game, and got the winning goal on an assist by Carlson.

The non-league win improves Chapelgate's overall record to 5-1.